But RIT operations have only been institutionalized in the fire service during the last few decades. As McGrail writes in his book Firefighter Operations in High-Rise and Standpipe-Equipped Buildings McGrail (2007, p. 59):
During the decade of the '90s, and into the beginning of the 21st century, the whole concept of rapid intervention was developed and has evolved into what it is today. From a time when even the term RIT was foreign to most fire departments, to today when RIT is not only common term to most, it is now the topic of countless articles...most fire departments operate with some form of RIT in a standby position at all fireground operations.
Although RIT has become standard in the fire service, during the 9-11 and Katrina disasters, it was found that either there were not enough RIT teams or none at all in some fire departments in Louisiana. For the RIT teams that were deployed, their training could not have prepared ten for with of these two events. The 9-11 attacks for example, when the firefighters arrived on scene, they did not have the capabilities to reach the floors that were on fire due to the height. In addition, rescuing people became difficult not only because there were a lot of them trapped in the higher floors and there was no way to reach them. Thos firefighters who were able to enter the buildings had to contend with falling debris, smoke, panicking people and even toxic materials and fumes.
During Hurricane Katrina, the fire service's major role of firefighting took to the sidelines because majority of the tasks involved search, rescue, retrieval and evacuation of trapped people. The event also proved tremendously difficult because there were not enough firefighters to serve the numerous victims of Hurricane Katrina. A new reality was also faced by the fire service during Hurricane Katrina and this was more on the personal aspects of the firefighters involved. Since those who responded during Hurricane Katrina, particularly those belonging to the different fire departments in Louisiana, were residents of the state or cities/municipalities struck by the disaster, these firefighters have families that were victims also. Thus, there have been reports that some firefighters left their duties in order to attend to their families needed rescuing. This did not happen though immediately but occurred one some of the firefighters realized that they are facing an impossible situation and the next prudent thing to do was to ensure the safety of their families.
Aside from having to face impossible situations and lack of available personnel to manage events of the magnitude that the 9-11 and Hurricane Katrina events demonstrated, other major problems faced by the fire service in dealing with these two disasters included "flawed policies, [lack of] leadership, and organization at both the national and local levels of government (Weitz, 2005). These findings were clearly documented in both the House and the Senate during the hearings done after the two events. Details of the outcome of the hearings are discussed in the succeeding section.
D. Findings of the House and the Senate on the 9-11 and Hurricane Katrina
During the House and Senate hearings held after the 9-11 and Hurricane Katrina events, findings pointed out to several things that went wrong. One glaring finding regarding both events is the lack of communications amongst the responding agencies. For instance, on the morning of September 11, New York police officers were able to hear the radio warnings from helicopters that the North Tower of the World Trade Center was glowing red and most of the police officers exited the building safely, while dozens of firefighters who could not hear those same warnings, tragically perished when the tower collapsed (U.S. House of Representatives, 2005). In the Senate, communications figured also as an area lacking during Hurricane Katrina. More particularly, the findings were, "Destruction of communications towers and equipment in particular limited the ability of crews to communicate with one another, undermining coordination and efficiency. Rescuers also had to contend with weapons fire, debris, and polluted water. (Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, 2006)" Consequently, both cases showed that the fie service will have to revisit their communications system and how this can be integrated with other agencies in order for the problems faced during the 9-11 and Hurricane Katrina events will not happen again. Without an integrated communication system, the fire service cannot properly manage disasters along the lines of these two events.
Although communications have been the general...
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